John Michael Higgins has been tapped to lead the cast of ABC's comedy, The Thick of It. The show focuses on the nonpartisan high jinks that ensue in the office of a newly elected congressman (Higgins).

Bill Smitrovich and Jason Antoon have joined Fox's comedy pilot Me & Lee, which centers on Joel (Jamie Kennedy), a chronic back pain victim who gets more than he bargained for when he undergoes "bionic" surgery in a secret lab run by actor Lee Majors (playing himself) in the basement of his Beverly Hills mansion. The Hollywood Reporter says Smitrovich will play Joel's obnoxious and opinionated father, and Antoon will play the lab's technician.

Mark Moses and Smith Cho have been added to ABC's untitled D.C. comedy pilot; it's a comedic soap about an aide (Eric Christian Olsen) to a Democratic senator who falls for the daughter (Michelle Trachtenberg) of his boss' arch enemy, a Republican senator (Moses). Cho will play the daughter's best friend.

Paul F. Thompkins and Amanda Detmer have been cast as the leads in CBS' comedy pilot 1321 Clover. The show is a documentary-style comedy about a typical suburban family; Thompkins will play the husband, an insecure man, and Detmer will play his patient and loving wife and mother of two. Also cast in the pilot is Logan Grove as their 6-year-old son.

Rosa Blasi has been cast in the CW comedy Eight Days a Week; it centers on four twentysomethings employed by top movers and shakers in New York. Blasi will play one of the bosses, a big-name personal publicist.

Kim Coles has been added to the CW comedy, Hell on Earth. The show centers on a 'mean girl' who gets hit by a bus, goes to purgatory and is given a second chance at life as an ordinary girl; Coles will play an angel.